Like all parts of the city, the docks in Galway have changed even over the last decade. Probably the biggest change is that it is now a safe place to walk at night. Above is a triptych showing the same view of the Galway Docks over the last 10 years. The oldest image is top – the middle image was taken 6 years ago and the bottom one around 6 months ago. Actually, the first thing that struck me, looking at the blue skies in each image, was that we got at least 3 sunny days in the last decade.
In the top picture is part of the Galway Docks, photographed around 2001/2002. On the far left is Padraigin’s which was an ‘early’ pub – i.e. it could open for business at 7am to facilitate arriving sailors. My experience of it, from when I lived in the Docks, was you had to be drunk to go in there, and you would definitely be drunk leaving it. The pub has changed names a couple of times even in the last 10 years – it was renamed to Sheridan’s and became a pub/restaurant and more recently is called McGinns. It no longer has a nearly morning pub license.
The white ship is the Kaigata Maru No. 52 – a fishing ship from Japan. Behind it are sheds from the McDonagh’s Fertilizer company (the company also had a factory by Wolfe Tone bridge on the site where Jury’s hotel now stands). Those sheds were demolished soon after the top picture was taken, and replaced by the new Dockgate office development. In the middle picture, the ship marked P51 is the L E Róisín, one of the Irish Naval Service fleet.
The top image was taken on slide file (and then scanned) – the other two images were taken with digital cameras.
I passed on my one chance to go into Padraigin’s one morning when I walked by the Dock. I decided being a woman alone wandering into a pub full of rowdy men was probably not my best option, and went round to the tea shoppe instead. Kinda sorry I missed it now. But it’s a good thing that the street is safer now.
You and I may have been on the docks at roughly the same time at least one of the days it was sunny. I still have a couple photos of the one day I was there that the sun allowed good shots from the roof of the little Museum.
So nice to see the dock again…looks much better than the dock cam which is no longer offering a clear image.
Hope you and your lady are enjoying a happy start to the new year.